The contact details for Bay Advocates are as stated on its website www.bayadvocates.co.uk

This privacy notice sets out the standards that you can expect from Bay Advocates when we request or retain personal information “personal data” about you. We will set out how you can get access to a copy of your personal data and what you can do if such standards are not being met.

Bay Advocates is a company specialising in the practice of criminal law and is responsible for the personal data and information we hold. Bay Advocates collects and processes personal data for the exercise of its own functions and in order to provide you with the service which is required.

About personal data

Personal data is information about you as an individual. It can be your name, address, telephone number, email address and can also include your financial information and information relating to any previous legal proceedings. We know how important it is to protect our client’s privacy and the comply with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and we will safeguard your personal data and will only disclose it where it is lawful to do so or with your consent. We only process personal data that is relevant for the service we provide to you. The personal data which you have given to us or that has been passed to us by a third party, for example the Police, Duty Solicitor Call Centre or Local Authority, will be used for the following purposes: -

(1) To make applications to the Legal Aid Agency to obtain public funding for you if you qualify

(2) To process payments made by you to us.

(3) To carry out preparation in your case or matter and to advise, assist and represent you as necessary.

Were we unable to collect you personal data, we would not be able to conduct the activities required to represent you in your case or matter, which would prevent us from providing a proper service to you.

The lawful basis for Bay Advocates collecting and processing personal data is to the processing is that it is necessary for the performance of our contact with you or that it is in our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party.

We also collect ‘special categories of personal data’, the processing of which is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

We also collect data about criminal convictions or offences, the lawful basis for which is that it is necessary for your legitimate interests. The processing of such data is carried out only under the control of official authority such as the police or Crown Prosecution Service

Who do we share your personal data with?

We sometimes need to share your personal data and information with other organisations. When this is necessary, we will comply with all aspects of the relevant data protection laws. The organisations we may share your information with include your appointed barrister and their chambers, the Crown Prosecution Service, The Legal Aid Agency, an agency solicitor, independent police station representative, Lexcel assessor.

You can contact our Data Protection Officer, Mr Martin Salloway for further information on who we share your personal data with.

We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Union but if a circumstance arises where we do need to, we will notify you of this and any transfers will be made in full compliance with data protection laws.

How long do we hold your personal data and information for?

Your personal information will not be held for any longer than is necessary for the lawful purposes for which it is collected and processed and this is so your personal data does not become out of date or irrelevant. The Solicitors Regulation Authority under which this firm is regulated, have set out retention periods in this respect and we appertain to these and therefore we hold your personal data for 6 years in both paper and electronic format. We will periodically review our procedures for data retention timescales.

You can also contact our Data Protection Officer in this respect.

We will ensure that we retain your personal data securely and protect it from loss or misuse and once the retention period has been reached, your data will be permanently and securely deleted and destroyed.

If you would like to know what personal data we are holding about you, you can make “a subject access request” and please contact the Torquay Office as detailed on our headed paper and website if you would like to do this.

When we ask for your personal data

We will inform you as to why we need your personal data and only ask for the personal data that we need for our purpose. We will not ask for personal data that is irrelevant or excessive

We have responsibilities and you have rights when we collect your personal data and these are:-

• You can access your data by making a “subject access request” at any time. We do not charge for this. We will process your request within 20 days and if we need to extend this time limit, we will notify you. In certain circumstances, we may require to extend the time limit for two further months taking into account the complexity and number of request.

• You can withdraw consent at any time where relevant

• We will protect and ensure that no unauthorised person has access to it

• You can lodge a complaint with our firm’s supervisory authority

• We share your data with other organisations only for legitimate purposes

• We do not keep your data for longer than is necessary

• We do not make your data available if requested by outside agencies, for example the Police, HMRC, National Crime Agency etc without your consent

• We will act on your request to change, stop processing and delete your personal data.

You can get further details on how we collect, use and delete your data and how we check that the information we hold is correct (if required) and how you can make a complaint by contacting our DPCO Martin Salloway at our Torquay Office. Alternatively you can email him on martin.salloway@bayadvocates.co.uk.

Complaints

If you do consider that your information has been handled incorrectly, your can contact the Information Commissioner as below:-